Hamas has released sick new video footage showing the first proof-of-life footage of American hostage Keith Siegel.
Siegel, a father of four and grandfather of five, appears gaunt and exhausted in the three-and-a-half-minute-long edited film, where at one point his eyes welled up with tears before he folded his head over and cried into his arms.
The Chapel Hill, North Carolina, native appeared in the video with another fellow hostage, Omri Miran.
They said in Hebrew they are praying for a deal between Israel and the terrorist group that sees them and other captives returned home, The Times of Israel reported.
The newly released footage is undated, but Siegel, 64, discussed the ongoing Passover holiday and Miran, 46, says he has been held captive for 202 days.
The pair also said they had seen demonstrators in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem pressing for their release, according to i24.
The hostages urged Israelis to continue their efforts, suggesting the constant heat could push the Israeli government into negotiating a deal with Hamas.
Siegel was kidnapped along with his wife, Aviva, a 62-year-old teacher, at their home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, which was ravaged by Hamas terrorists during the Oct. 7 attacks that saw roughly 1,200 people killed and another 253 taken hostage.
The couple have lived in Israel for decades.
Aviva Siegel, who instructed Jewish and Arab children as a teacher, was among dozens of hostages freed in November as part of a weeklong ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel.
While attending an Israeli parliament meeting in January, the former captive recalled how Hamas dressed female hostages in “doll’s clothes” and treated them as “puppets with whom they could do what they wanted.”
“We were there for 51 days, and there wasn’t a minute that we didn’t experience abuse,” she said.
Miran was ripped from his wife and two young daughters at their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz amid the harrowing massacre that sparked the ongoing war in Gaza.
The twisted Hamas propaganda video of Siegel and Miran is the second proof-of-life propaganda clip shared in recent days by the terrorist group.
On Wednesday, Hamas released footage of Israeli American dual citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, who was kidnapped Oct. 7 while attending the Supernova rave in the Negev desert.
On Saturday, Hamas officials said they were reviewing new Israeli terms of a ceasefire-for-hostages deal, which were made in response to a proposal from the terrorist group two weeks ago, AFP reported.
The group did not share the details of Israel’s proposal.
“Today, the Hamas movement received the official Zionist occupation response to the movement’s position, which was delivered to the Egyptian and Qatari mediators on April 13,” Khalil Al-Hayya, Hamas’ deputy chief in Gaza, said in a statement.
“The movement will study this proposal, and upon completion of its study, it will submit its response.”
An Egyptian delegation visited Israeli officials on Friday in the Jewish state to discuss reviving ceasefire and hostage negotiations with Hamas.
The Israelis warned their Egyptian counterparts that Jerusalem would give the negotiations “one last chance” before launching their ground invasion of Rafah, where more than one million Palestinians are currently sheltering in Gaza, senior officials told Axios.